DUBAI: Dubai may close more than 400 workers’ hostels for failing safety standards, a municipal official was quoted yesterday as saying, after a fire killed 11 Asian laborers in an overcrowded house this week.
Redha Salman, the Dubai Municipality’s public health director, said 40 percent of the 1,033 permanent and temporary living quarters risked closure after being warned for failing health and fire safety standards, The National daily reported.
The fire in the early hours of Tuesday swept through a building housing about 800 laborers, with about 20 workers sharing each room. Two leaseholders of the building were arrested for violating health and safety regulations, the newspaper said.
“Currently, only 60 percent (of the housing facilities) meet the standards,” Salman said. “Those (that) were not serious violators and only failed a few checkpoints were given six-month to one-year probation.”
Construction workers in the Gulf trade hub, which is building the world’s tallest tower and man-made islands, have long complained about poor working conditions. The UAE government has revised the labor law to include requirements that employers pay for migrant workers’ travel, employment permits, medical tests and health care.
It has also closed down some workers’ hostels that do not meet health and safety standards in a crackdown on firms abusing foreign workers.
Many cities in the Gulf region are growing rapidly as governments plow oil revenue windfalls into ambitious development and infrastructure projects that rely on guest workers, mainly from the Indian Subcontinent.
